VictoriaF wrote:Even if the quality of food does not improve, when people face fewer options they are more likely to get engaged. This is quintessential behavioral economics, in contrast with standard economics where having more choices is always better. One of the most important related findings is that when a 401(k) plan offers too many investment options, fewer people contribute to 401(k). Regardless of the fund choices, it's usually advantageous to contribute to 401(k) up to the company match, and people forgo this benefit simply because there are too many options.

Couldn't that simply be because they don't UNDERSTAND what they are choosing between because they don't understand enough about investing and are thus intimidated by more CONFUSING choices? Restaurant choices are simple. I doubt you would find people walking out of restaurants because they have to choose between orange, grapefruit, peach, strawberry or pineapple juice rather than just having orange juice on the menu.

There was a famous experiment by Sheena Iyengar where supermarket customers were offered to try jams--e.g., orange, grapefruit, peach, strawberry, pineapple, etc.--and then to buy them at discounted prices. In one set of stores they were offered a relatively small number of types of jams, I think it was eight. In the other set of stores, they were offered 25 different jams. The stores offering eight types of jams had much higher sales.

I'll have to check that link out when I have time. I can't believe that more options per se make us less happy. There are so many potential confounding variables.

Skepticism is good, but it should be applied not only to what the others state but also to your own intuition. I am fascinated with behavioral economics, because it turns a lot of common logic on its head and demonstrates it with creative experiments and statistically significant, academically acceptable results.

Barry Schwartz's book The Paradox of Choice is monumental. The research he cites, including that by Sheena Iyengar, is solid. Eric Barker's linked blog post is a quick way to grasp these ideas about choice: it's far shorter than the book or academic papers but more comprehensive than a message I could compose in this Forum.

Barker covers many topics I find interesting. His posts are well structured, concise but comprehensive, provide links to the source materials (books, academic papers, TED and YouTube videos), and include summaries of the key concepts. Do check him out.

Victoria

WINNER of the 2015 Boglehead Contest. |
Every joke has a bit of a joke. ... The rest is the truth. (Marat F)

VictoriaF wrote:Even if the quality of food does not improve, when people face fewer options they are more likely to get engaged. This is quintessential behavioral economics, in contrast with standard economics where having more choices is always better. One of the most important related findings is that when a 401(k) plan offers too many investment options, fewer people contribute to 401(k). Regardless of the fund choices, it's usually advantageous to contribute to 401(k) up to the company match, and people forgo this benefit simply because there are too many options.

Couldn't that simply be because they don't UNDERSTAND what they are choosing between because they don't understand enough about investing and are thus intimidated by more CONFUSING choices? Restaurant choices are simple. I doubt you would find people walking out of restaurants because they have to choose between orange, grapefruit, peach, strawberry or pineapple juice rather than just having orange juice on the menu.

I'll have to check that link out when I have time. I can't believe that more options per se make us less happy. There are so many potential confounding variables.

There are a couple of shows I like to watch that relate to this... Restaurant Impossible and Bar Rescue. I have heard mention in each of these shows that simplifying menu choices contributes to success.

Reasons given include:

Best to do fewer things very well than lots of things so-so.

Stick to a theme.

Reduce inventory and spoilage.

and, germane to this topic, customers prefer fewer choices. They came to eat/drink, not to study nor marvel at the size of a huge, complex, menu. They want to relax and enjoy without working at it. As the restaurant/bar owner you should do all that work for them and offer your best.

To get variety, throw in daily specials. If one sells particularly well, consider rolling it into the main menu replacing the poorest performer.

"Keep it simple" works in lots of areas!

Listen very carefully. I shall say this only once. (There! I've said it.)

I am reading Montana by Gwen Florio. This is a crime novel about a woman journalist embedded in Afghanistan. She returns home to find out her newspaper is eliminating its foreign bureau and will rely on wire services for its foreign coverage. More or less out of a job, she travels to Montana to reunite with an old colleague, only to discover her colleague has been murdered.

I had never heard of Gwen Florio until I read a nice review in the Pre-Pub newsletter of Library Journal, or maybe I read the review in Library Journal, itself. Just reading the jacket notes to the book, however, she seems to have some credentials as a journalist: covered Columbine and Timothy McVeigh, reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia, nominated three times for a Pulitzer.

My library has this book only in streaming audiobook format, so I had to request it through Inter-library loan. Her follow-up book, Dakota, likewise only is available in audiobook format. I hope this is not a sign of things to come where libraries will be limiting book formats in their collections.

My first thought was that the IoT, distributed renewable energy, 3D printing, and social networks will eventually lead to a completely different type of an economy, and of particular relevance to this Forum profits, capital gains, and capital markets will be substantially different from the historical precedent thus voiding any market trends and related analysis. Zero-marginal-cost is a true game changer, if it happens.

Then I've seen some criticism of the model from the computer security point of view. It's hard enough to keep private, well-funded systems secure; it's impossible to assure the integrity of a free network that touches everyone. Laws and policies are equally important. For example, Google must provide versions of its services in the U.S. and Europe due to the differences in privacy-related requirements. Repressive regimes limit the Internet penetration and access to web services.

I am curious what you think about it.

Victoria

WINNER of the 2015 Boglehead Contest. |
Every joke has a bit of a joke. ... The rest is the truth. (Marat F)

I am reading Under His Very Windows: the Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy by Susan Zuccotti. I had previously read the author's The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews, which she wrote several years prior to this one. Neither of these two books is very readable. The minutiae tend to bog down the narrative. The book has bibliographic notes but, unfortunately, no bibliography. The back-of-the-book index is mediocre at best.

(Edited to correct punctuation.)

Last edited by gkaplan on Mon Mar 02, 2015 5:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Currently reading Saint Odd by Dean Koontz. Last of 7 novels dealing with Odd Thomas, a fry cook that is able to see dead people. Wry humor mixed with horror. Due to his psychic abilities, he is forced to become a reluctant hero to save many people from various bad guys. Excellent series, highly recommended.
Mike

gkaplan wrote:I am reading Montana by Gwen Florio. This is a crime novel about a woman journalist embedded in Afghanistan. She returns home to find out her newspaper is eliminating its foreign bureau and will rely on wire services for its foreign coverage. More or less out of a job, she travels to Montana to reunite with an old colleague, only to discover her colleague has been murdered.

I had never heard of Gwen Florio until I read a nice review in the Pre-Pub newsletter of Library Journal, or maybe I read the review in Library Journal, itself. Just reading the jacket notes to the book, however, she seems to have some credentials as a journalist: covered Columbine and Timothy McVeigh, reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia, nominated three times for a Pulitzer.

My library has this book only in streaming audiobook format, so I had to request it through Inter-library loan. Her follow-up book, Dakota, likewise only is available in audiobook format. I hope this is not a sign of things to come where libraries will be limiting book formats in their collections.

Was the book good?

We cannot absolutely prove [that they are wrong who say] that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us, and with just as much apparent reason. |
-T. B. Macaulay (1800-1859)

gkaplan wrote:I am reading Montana by Gwen Florio. This is a crime novel about a woman journalist embedded in Afghanistan. She returns home to find out her newspaper is eliminating its foreign bureau and will rely on wire services for its foreign coverage. More or less out of a job, she travels to Montana to reunite with an old colleague, only to discover her colleague has been murdered.

I had never heard of Gwen Florio until I read a nice review in the Pre-Pub newsletter of Library Journal, or maybe I read the review in Library Journal, itself. Just reading the jacket notes to the book, however, she seems to have some credentials as a journalist: covered Columbine and Timothy McVeigh, reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia, nominated three times for a Pulitzer.

My library has this book only in streaming audiobook format, so I had to request it through Inter-library loan. Her follow-up book, Dakota, likewise only is available in audiobook format. I hope this is not a sign of things to come where libraries will be limiting book formats in their collections.

This was my first time reading Stuart Wood and I know there are some fans on this board. Unfortunately I had to stop reading Severe Clear (Stone Barrington). It was just too unrealistic and over-the-top to me. Reminded me of those old television mini-series, I couldn't take one more word.

Just finished Deep, Down, Dark by Hector Tobar, a retelling of the 2010 story of 33 Chilean (1 Bolivian, actually) miners who were trapped for more than 2 months, 2,000 feet down inside a mountain. Highly recommend; fascinating and exciting story and examination of human nature. It should make a great movie too, I imagine.

Just about done with Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Cards of Allowable Opinion by Tom Woods. I think this is a collection of his writings that have appeared elsewhere. It's my first exposure to this author, and I'm enjoying his writing and his perspective.

Rereading this and the whole series. This one is the first. No real need to read them in order; each is completely stand-alone.

From the publisher:

Janwillem van de Wetering (1931–2008) was born and raised in Rotterdam, but lived most recently in Surry, Maine. He served as a member of the Amsterdam Special Constabulary and was once a Zen Buddhist monk. He is renowned for his detective fiction, including Outsider in Amsterdam, The Corpse on the Dike, The Japanese Corpse, and eleven other books in the Grijpstra and de Gier series.

Detective-Adjutant Grijpstra and Sergeant de Gier of the Amsterdam police investigate murders that occur in Amsterdam. Like all good murder mysteries, there really is a mystery with associated plot twists but the heart of the novel is in the characterizations of and the dialog between our protagonists. You can feel the above influences in the books. Great to read in a warm cozy chair on a cold day!

Listen very carefully. I shall say this only once. (There! I've said it.)

The Misbehavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence, by Benoit Mandelbrot and Richard L. Hudson.
I have only finished the first chapter. Mandelbrot's basic thesis is we have been mis-measuring risk -- that the markets are much riskier than what is proposed by standard financial theories.

Bustoff wrote:The Misbehavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence, by Benoit Mandelbrot and Richard L. Hudson.
I have only finished the first chapter. Mandelbrot's basic thesis is we have been mis-measuring risk -- that the markets are much riskier than what is proposed by standard financial theories.

This is a much discussed favourite on this board.

I found it to be absolutely profound. One of very few books that changed my view about something (as opposed to giving me that view, which lots of books have done, being the first thing I read on a subject).

Currently reading the book "The Millionaire real estate investor". Still in part-1 of the book and seems very interesting. Any one read it? Any other suggested reading from the real estate investors on this forum?

walletless wrote:Currently reading the book "The Millionaire real estate investor". Still in part-1 of the book and seems very interesting. Any one read it? Any other suggested reading from the real estate investors on this forum?

John Reed is a frequently cited RE investor on this forum. Although some of his other stuff seems to have gone off the deep end.

Triumph and Tragedy, by Winston Churchill. The sixth and final volume of his history of World War II. D-day, battles in France, Yalta, battles in Italy, civil strife in Greece, battle of Leyte Gulf, Battle of the Bulge, Poland, invasion and occupation of Germany, campaign in Burma, the atomic bomb and Potsdam.

"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein |
Wiki article link:Getting Started

The Other Side of Paradise: Life in the New Cuba by Julia Cooke - not recommended - can't decide if its accurate. As I'm back from Cuba, I can stop reading books on it. I guess next I'll have to concentrate on photography of animals as that my next vacation.

Finished American Cornball: A Laff-O-Pedic Guide to the Formerly Funny, by Christopher Miller. Better than its title. Very interesting, very readable, and quite funny.

Finished Featuring the Saint, by Leslie Charteris, three of his 1930 novels. Very strange. Not unlike reading 1930s pulp fiction "space opera," Doc Smith and the like. I vaguely remember The Saint from the comic strip but didn't follow it. In fights, he is every bit as superhuman as your average superhero. It's not actually good.

Working on The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester, and I see why it has its reputation. It's very good--in its way. I could use a little bit more of somewhat more plausible double-talk in terms of explanation of what's happening.

nisiprius wrote:Just finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain. I think it has been ate least fifty years since I last read it. Reading it now, boy, does it raise hundreds of questions about the times. Some I was able to figure out, like what "a big Milum apple" was. Mark Twain's boyhood would have been around 1850 or so, . . .

You inspired me to start re-reading The Adventures 0f Huckleberry Finn. I read both when a youth.

When I retired four years ago and had time to start reading for pleasure again, these two books were the first I read.

nisiprius wrote: . . . I am never quite sure of the age of Twain's characters, sometimes they seem to be 9 or 10 and sometimes they seem to be 15...)

My guess is around 10 - 12 years of age, about as young as you could expect to handle a hunting rifle as Huckleberry does in his adventures.

EDIT: My new guess is about 13-14 years old. Huckleberry describes a boy he had just met "Buck looked about as old as me -- thirteen or fourteen or along there . . ."

Last edited by ruralavalon on Thu Mar 19, 2015 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein |
Wiki article link:Getting Started

To mark the passing of Terry Pratchett, I've decided to start working my way through his DIscworld series again.
If you have any interest in 1) fantasy, 2) satire, or 3) British humor, you owe it to yourself to check his works out.

NaOH wrote:To mark the passing of Terry Pratchett, I've decided to start working my way through his DIscworld series again.
If you have any interest in 1) fantasy, 2) satire, or 3) British humor, you owe it to yourself to check his works out.

RIP, Sir Terry.

Sad news. I am sorry to hear it,

Victoria

WINNER of the 2015 Boglehead Contest. |
Every joke has a bit of a joke. ... The rest is the truth. (Marat F)

Finished reading The Giant Jam Sandwhich, by John Vernon Lord. It's a children's book with colorful illustrations and verses that rhyme, but being able to read one of my childhood favorites to my daughter was so much fun!

Currently reading "A Great and Terrible king" by Marc Morris, about Edward I and the "Forging of England."

An excellent read...wonderful historian. I got it because of "The Norman Conquest" by the same author which I highly recommend. I could call the latter a game of thrones for grown ups, but it is really a superbly written history which I would recommend reading first.

Tim

"All man's miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone. " -- Pascal

The main character is a fascinating person with autism. Here is part of the blurb

Genevieve Lenard is suffering from a special strain of autism and virtually lives with daily influxes of the disease. The author paints a sympathetic portrait of a highly intelligent yet beautiful young woman's predicament and the way she works on herself to rise above her social demeanor.

I highly recommend the series and since discovering Genevieve, all other criminal profilers pale in comparison, not only in her skill set but in her personality. Some of her stuff had me laughing out loud.

I am about half way into the audiobook Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling. I am listening to it while practice-backpacking and it works out well. I don't want my walks to end. I searched for previous Bogleheads mentions of the book and saw that Nisiprius has already reviewed it in What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V. I would've liked to add to his comments but that thread is locked.

Initially Nisi judged the story mean-spirited but later he revised his opinion. I find the story fascinating, because it provides excellent descriptions of the psyche of people from a wide range of social backgrounds, across all ages. It gets to the essence of what makes people tick.

Gossip plays an important role in the story. Generally, people give "gossip" a negative connotation, and that could be a reason for nisiprius's comments about mean-spiritedness. I have changed my attitude to gossip from neutral to positive after I listened to Daniel Kahneman's podcasts where on several occasions he said that he was interested in gossip from an early age and that this interest has led to his career in psychology (and a Nobel in economics). Gossip is a glue of social groups; it binds people with shared secrets, helps to gauge trustworthiness of others, and builds alliances. Gossip is a spice of conversations. Without it, people resort to platitudes about weather, food and TV shows.

In a few days, I will find out who will fill the casual vacancy. Right now, I am in the midst of suspense, making my guesses. I am assuming it will not be one of the obvious candidates.

Victoria

WINNER of the 2015 Boglehead Contest. |
Every joke has a bit of a joke. ... The rest is the truth. (Marat F)

TimDex wrote:Currently reading "A Great and Terrible king" by Marc Morris, about Edward I and the "Forging of England."

An excellent read...wonderful historian. I got it because of "The Norman Conquest" by the same author which I highly recommend. I could call the latter a game of thrones for grown ups, but it is really a superbly written history which I would recommend reading first.

Tim

Great recommendations. I took History of England in undergrad (but don't ask how I did in it), and enjoyed reading about this period.

This is a series of interviews of technology startup
founders by Jessica Livingston. I'm about 1/4 through.

This books reminds me of a U.S. civil rights movement
history book called My Soul Is Rested by Howell Raines.
It also is a series of interviews such that there is not
a single original word written by the author.

I think this type of book provides a short cut to
history. I think the human brain can read 1000 pages
of history at a rate of 600+ words a minute when those
words are the transcription of a human's actual
relating of history / personal experiences. Whereas
at least for me, when I read a history book where
the same events have been condensed into 1/100th the
length of text, told in story teller fashion, I find it arduous
and in the end get less knowledge per hour spent.

It is also easier to WRITE a series of interviews.
One just has to interview the people and it's more
of an automatic process to edit and transcribe the
interviews than to consult many sources and synthesize
the shortest possible exposition of the event.

In short, I am enjoying this book very much and
pleased that the author spent the minimum amount
of time to produce the product I enjoy as well as
taking up of other people's time. In other words this
book is a creation where no energy input to create it
was frivolous.

Just finished "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson. Historical fiction about the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 (the White City) and the counter-point story of serial killer Dr. Holmes. Extensive research and foot notes. Most interesting.

I've also read Isaac's Storm by the same author about the Galveston hurricane. Also historical fiction.

At this point I would recommend any historical novel by Larson and plan to read more.

Hawkeye5 wrote:Just finished "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson. Historical fiction about the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 (the White City) and the counter-point story of serial killer Dr. Holmes. Extensive research and foot notes. Most interesting.

I've also read Isaac's Storm by the same author about the Galveston hurricane. Also historical fiction.

At this point I would recommend any historical novel by Larson and plan to read more.

Agree on Devil in the White City. I read it in paperback, much of it on an airplane. I liked it enough to give away the paperback and buy the hardcover for my "permanent" collection.

Many Amazon reviews complain that there was too much about the 1893 Exposition (architecture, construction, exhibits and attractions, culture, politics, etc.) but I found that just as interesting as the Dr. Holmes parts. Also the two aspects do serve as good background "atmosphere" for each other.

I expect to get to his other books, but I have a lot of books waiting to be read.

Listen very carefully. I shall say this only once. (There! I've said it.)

I usually do not read books, but internet forums, magazine for my gardening hobby and newspapers. Reading here about 'The Millionaire next Door', after also reading about it over the years I finally bought it on Amazon. I find it very interesting. With the last rise in stock market I am nearly one of them. I did not know that there is so much 'hats and no cattle' around, though suspected something like it with all those BMWs zooming around.

I just got yesterday 'NOLO Neighbor Law', started reading it immediately. There it is written that via common law I do alright by pruning neighbor's arborvitae back to my property line. Then there is one neighbor adding soil which then started to slide into my fence, plus his gutters in the past flooded a small part of my garden. This is a very useful book!